Markets are sending mixed signals. Stocks sit within sight of record highs, yet consumer confidence is near multiyear lows, inflation is lingering, and the Federal Reserve has been raising interest rates that look likely to stay elevated for a while. AI-led gains are also showing signs of vulnerability.
In that kind of environment, it can make sense to lean a little less on capital growth that may not fully arrive and a little more on dependable cash flow. Three high-yielding dividend stocks offer different routes to that income: a battered consumer name on the mend, a globally diversified renewable power owner, and a wireless giant whose customers rarely cancel.
Clorox (CLX): A Turnaround With a Streak on the Line
Clorox has had a miserable stretch. The stock is down about 60% from its 2020 peak and hit a new multiyear low last month. A 2023 cyberattack did lasting damage, and a rocky move to a new enterprise resource planning platform made matters worse, producing shrinking sales and earnings. Scale is also a disadvantage: Clorox did $6.7 billion in business last fiscal year, down 5%, while rival Procter & Gamble did $87 billion.
With most of what was broken now fixed, Clorox is guiding to organic revenue growth of 3.5% to 4.5% for the fiscal year that began in July, with per-share earnings improving along with it. Through all of it, the company kept paying and raising its dividend, extending its streak to 49 years of annual increases. One more raise would make it a Dividend King.
Shares trade near $99, for a market cap of about $12 billion, with a forward dividend yield of roughly 5.7%. The sell-off may have overlooked the turnaround already underway.
Brookfield Renewable (BEPC): Flexibility Big Utilities Don’t Have
Utilities are classic dividend payers because customers keep paying their bills. But the business is capital-intensive, increasingly regulated, and usually grows only by expanding geographically, which adds complexity.
Brookfield Renewable takes a different approach. Rather than endlessly expanding into adjacent territory, it invests in smaller cash-generating projects around the world, such as a 38% stake in Colombian hydropower company Isagen and a recently acquired share of Canadian wind specialist Boralex. Its management understands smaller and foreign wind, hydro, nuclear, and solar assets, including when to buy in and when to sell, a flexibility traditional utilities lack.
The company is also structured to prioritize dividends. It expects distributions to grow 5% to 9% per year indefinitely, and new buyers start with a forward yield of about 5.4%. One practical note: BEPC is the corporate share class. A limited partnership version trades as BEP, but owning partnership units requires extra tax-filing forms that may not be worth the trouble.
Verizon Communications (VZ): The Cash Cow Nobody Cancels
Consumers keep their phones connected almost as reliably as they keep the lights on. Data from Harmony Healthcare IT shows the average American spends more than five hours a day on a smartphone, and most people aren’t about to give that up. That demand has let Verizon raise its annual dividend for 20 consecutive years.
Don’t expect much capital appreciation. Pew Research data shows 98% of U.S. adults own a mobile phone, and 91% of those are smartphones, so the market is saturated and carriers largely trade customers with one another. Growth will come mainly from population gains and price increases.
But as a source of dividend cash flow, wireless telecom is hard to beat, and Verizon is among its best. Shares trade near $47, for a market cap of about $191 billion, with a yield of roughly 6.3%.
